Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

Middletown's Daija Lampkin wins the 200 meter dash during the DIAA state indoor track championships Saturday in Landover, Md. She also won the 55 meter dash.(Photo: William Bretzger, The News Journal)Buy Photo

The most dominant indoor sprinter in Delaware history, Daija Lampkin rose in national prominence this year, for a time becoming the nation’s fastest this year in the 55 meters.

Most importantly, she preserved her health.

In a winter when Myrissa McFolling-Young of Smyrna set a state shot put record (43-10¾) en route to her third straight championship, and Caesar Rodney’s Destiny-Bailey Perkins made the state’s longest jump of the 21st Century (18-3¼), Lampkin was named Delaware’s outstanding indoor track athlete.

The Middletown senior survived the three-ring demands of the indoor sport to win state championships at 55 and 200 meters, besting Ursuline junior Najia Cornish, who in any other year would have run away with both titles.

A purposeful trainer, demanding on herself, for whom past championships are just additional motivation to improve, she took a break last summer after a meteoric junior year that climaxed with competition in Cuba at the Caribbean Scholastic Invitational.

“I was just a regular teenager, working at Pat’s Pizzeria in Middletown." Lampkin said. “It was my first summer where I just relaxed. I had injured myself when I was going to nationals. I was training and training, so that my body wore down. I took the summer to relax and get my body to recover from the long season, which I’d never really done.”

After deciding on University of Alabama in the fall, she resumed training, sometimes with two workouts a day.

“Even though this year, people were saying, ‘You don’t have to go as hard. You already have your ticket.’" she said. "I just want to prove to myself what I can do this season, so I work hard still.”

At the season-opening Bishop Loughlin Games on Staten Island a week before Christmas, she hurdled to two state records. She flew through the first indoor 300 of her life in 38.59 and ran a national-best 6.88 in the 55. Christiana’s Danielle Bailey had held both records for 16 years.

“How do I run a 300 indoors? I got advice. Sprint the first 100, stride the second 100, and go all out the third 100. At the end, I got tight, like I was running the 400,” she said.

Indoor track often makes impractical demands. Holidays, weather and travel considerations compress the scheduling of meets and the order of races.

At popular meets, preliminary heats add to the burden. Many an athlete has spent a sore spring after overextending herself in a winter meet.

The Virginia Showcase in mid-January at Liberty University caused the most stress. Featuring many of the East Coast’s best, as well as hundreds of other strivers, the meet lasted past midnight.

After winning the 55 in 6.94, Lampkin finished fourth (38.97) in a strong 300-meter field after 1 a.m.. Unable to cool down properly, she left the meet with a sore groin, followed by pain in her hip flexor.

The remaining three weeks before the state meet consisted of as much physical therapy as training. In her only meet in that span, she covered 60 meters in 7.56, second all-time.

At the state meet, she passed up the 400. It’s her least favorite event, but one she won last year, when she ran the second fastest Delaware time ever, 0.2 seconds behind the 27-year-old record (56.19) of Tamara Stoner of Delcastle.

“No one wants to give up running at a meet when there’s a chance of winning, but it’s my health,” Lampkin said. “I’m just happy that I was able to win the 55 and the 200 without any injury.”

A week after the Feb. 4 state meet, she continued to control her pace at the Millrose Games in New York, where she burst into national notice last year by winning the 55. This year, Lampkin set a personal record with 6.88 despite a hurt groin.

“If I lose, I’ll be OK if I ran my best. Even if it was a defeat, it was also a victory for me because I was able to run a good time while being hurt," she said. I had a fun time. I PR’d and I got to watch the professionals.”

In mid-March, at the New Balance Nationals at the New York Armory, she again blossomed on the national stage, with the best Delaware performances ever in her specialties.

Three times she ran the 60 in 7.45 or faster, breaking another mark that Bailey had held since 2001. Operating with a tight quadriceps, she finished sixth in the 200 after becoming the first Delawarean to go under 24 seconds (23.89) in the semifinals.

“When I first started competing against people across the nation, it was scary,” Lampkin said. “Now I’m used to this stage, and this pressure is not as overwhelming.”

This spring, she has already broken the state outdoor record in the 100 meters, going 11.59 to break the record set four years ago by Maiya Dendy of Padua, now a sophomore at University of South Carolina, and the daughter of Lampkin’s personal coach, Mark Dendy, and has lowered her record in the 200 to 23.63.

“I’m paying attention to my start. It’s not where it needs to be,” she said. “What I also need to start focusing on is my form. Even though it may seem like my form looks great, it really isn’t it. I have to focus on picking up my legs. They don’t go into place where they need to be.”

In order to get where she ultimately wants to be, Lampkin continues to push herself with her conditioning regimen and follows it up running against the boys.

“I like that because it pushes me. I’m not going to win, but it pushes me to run faster,” she said. “To be the best you have to train with people who are going to push you to get better.”